At the trail end of last night’s debate, D.C. got a shout-out. Sure, all of America is conditioned to hear about Washington—that mythical place (presumably lurking in the tunnel underneath the Capitol?) where all of us evil moneygrubbers go to be corrupt and, uh, stuff.
But no—last night Senators McCain and Obama made a distinction. They talked about D.C., using the city’s other moniker as contrast. D.C. is the one where real people live and send their kids to real, terrible public schools. So not only are we the enemy of all humanity as Washington, we’re also the perfect example of education gone wrong as D.C. Nice.
No really, D.C.’s school system needs all the help it can get, so I’m all for making it a martyr to help invigorate much-needed education reform nationwide. Obama and McCain sparred on the policy of vouchers in D.C., going tit-for-tat over the merits of charters versus vouchers. Predictably, DC Public Schools issued a statement shortly after the debate clarifying Rhee’s position: “While Chancellor Rhee hasn’t taken a formal position on vouchers, she disagrees with the notion that vouchers are the remedy for repairing the city’s school system.”
While all that’s important, I can’t help but feel like the real boon for the District was in the simple acknowledgment that real people actually live in Washington, with struggles far beyond the race for the White House. Lucky for us, we have our own “mavericks” shaking things up—and they don’t need the help of angry mobs masquerading as campaign rallies to do so.
Photo via WaPo
